


The Youkai of Christmas Present

by pocketbookangel



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Christmas, Christmas in Japan, Christmas is Kentucky, Fluff, M/M, Snow, Youkai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketbookangel/pseuds/pocketbookangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not Natsume's first Christmas, but it will be his best thanks to Tanuma, Nyanko-sensei, and Santa Claus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Youkai of Christmas Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [furiosity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/furiosity/gifts).



> Christmas in Japan is an excuse to have a party with friends or a romantic night with a special person.

Nyanko-sensei sniffed the manjuu, suspicion and greed warring in his eyes. “What is Christmas flavor?” he asked. The manjuu, shaped like a snowman with a bright red scarf, smiled cheerfully back at him. Even traditional shops like Nanatsuji-ya followed the lead of department stores and Kentucky Fried Chicken by transforming into sparkly red and green winter wonderlands in late December.

“It’s a holiday,” Natsume said, unhelpfully.

The sky above them was grey with the promise of later snow and Natsume said that he wanted to make sure that Nyanko-sensei got enough exercise before they were forced indoors. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to bribe him with sweets or alcohol, so any health benefits were negligible. If Natsume had other reasons for wanting to walk around in the cold, he hadn’t shared them with his cat.

Nyanko-sensei took a small bite. Christmas was delicious, pure sugar. He gobbled up the rest of it. “More.”

“There aren’t any more, you greedy cat. That one was a present from Tanuma because I helped him with his homework.”

“Hmm… he’s usually the clever one, isn’t he? Why does he need you to help him study?” Nyanko-sensei tried to wave his tail suggestively, but the movement was not as effective in a rotund feline as it was when he was Madara, the strongest and most elegant youkai in all of Japan.

“We’re studying for exams now.” Natsume said. A couple of years ago, the idea of going to a university had seemed impossible. He’d planned on working a part-time job in high school and saving up the money to live on his own so he wouldn’t be a burden on anyone.

The sky grew darker. It would be a white Christmas this year. He’d never thought about Christmas until the year before he came to live with the Fujiwaras. None of his other relations had ever celebrated it, but when he stayed with his cousins, they’d been quietly resentful because they’d missed the ‘Christmas Fantasy Romance’ dinner that had been their yearly tradition.

“Last year it was just the two of us,” his cousin had said.

“More people, more happiness,” his wife corrected him, but she didn’t look at Natsume. “Maybe I should’ve bought a bigger cake this year. Growing boys have such an appetite.” The cake, with Santa leading tiny reindeer up a pristine mountain of whipped cream, was the perfect size for two people.

Natsume had wanted to excuse himself from the table, to pack his bag and leave without looking back, but he’d seen shadows earlier, dark shapes slinking around the corner of the garden, and he didn’t want to venture out and discover what they were hiding. He refused a slice of the cake, which made the tension in the air so much worse.

The Fujiwaras were a close and affectionate couple who had welcomed him into their warm circle of family life instead of excluding him. If anyone deserved a Christmas Fantasy Romance, it was them.

“I wonder if I’m going to be intruding on Christmas this year,” Natsume said.

“If this holiday is about eating manjuu, you’d better intrude and bring me all the manjuu you can carry.” The thought of extra sweets energized Nyanko-sensei. He almost bounced as he walked.

“It’s not about manjuu—there’s fried chicken and cake…” Natsume tried to remember the food he’d eaten at his cousin’s house. There’d been a sickly sweet fruit drink that his cousin had insisted he’d finish.

“Chicken, chicken, cake, cake,” Nyanko-sensei chanted. He stopped. “Oh, ho. The clever boy wants to follow you home,” he said.

\--

Tanuma slowed down at Natsume’s approach and reminded himself not to look too excited about accidently running into Natsume and his chubby cat, Ponta. Of course, chance had very little to do with their meeting. At this point in their friendship, he knew what time Natsume would be out playing with Ponta, and he timed his trip to the shops accordingly, which meant he’d accidentally run into Natsume every day of winter vacation.

“Oh, hi,” he imagined himself saying, very casually. “Wanna go on a date for Christmas?” Natsume would say yes, the two of them would go back to his house and… at this point, Tanuma would skip ahead to the part where they toasted their new-found love with champagne glasses filled with Fanta.

Tanuma took a deep breath. “Hello,” he said, failing at _casual_ and _relaxed_.

“Meow, meow.” Nyanko-sensei, graceful despite his size, leapt into Tanuma’s arms. “Meow.”

“Um, Ponta? I’m the one who knows you can talk.”

Nyanko-sensei made himself comfortable. “That’s Madara-sama, the great and powerful, human.” He winked, slowly.

Tanuma suddenly had a terrifying thought: the cat _knew_.

The three of them set out to finish Tanuma’s errands. Nyanko-sensei decided that Tanuma was the perfect person to enlighten him on the subject of Christmas cake. No matter how often Tanuma repeated _white_ and _fluffy_ and _strawberries_ , Nyanko-sensei didn’t seem to understand.

“These human foods must be more delicious than they sound. Natsume and I will come over at six and we will try them for ourselves,” Nyanko-sensei announced.

Natsume would be coming over for Christmas! Tanuma’s head swam with possibilities. He imagined answering the door to find Natsume, cheeks reddened from the cold, eyes sparkling in the snow. He edited his mental picture to leave out both his father and Nyanko-sensei. In his improved version, he held Natsume’s hand, brushed snow from his hair, and fed him cake. Since this was his fantasy, he wasn’t going to let the fact that he didn’t have enough hands for this, or that even if he did, he would be too awkward to suggest it, stop him from dreaming.

The shops were busy with people on their way home from work. Tanuma had checked off his father’s shopping list, and was about to suggest a quick trip to the game center, when he saw a jolly, fat man in a red and white suit prancing down the street.

“Look, it’s Santa Claus. Which store do you think he’s advertising?” Tanuma wondered. Santa’s presence had attracted a crowd and he was handing out candy to the children.

Nyanko-sensei twisted himself out of Tanuma’s arms and jumped to the ground. “I don’t know Santa Claus, but I do know youkai—”

Tanuma felt like he was hearing Nyanko-sensei’s voice coming from underwater. His head ached in a way that he hadn’t felt in a while, in a way that reminded him of the lonely times before he’d met Natsume and known that unseen worlds were real. A powerful aura surrounded him and it was hard to breathe. He felt himself falling, and just like in one of his fantasies, Natsume was there to catch him.

Nyanko-sensei hissed as Santa Claus came closer. “Who are you?”

“I’m Santa Claus! I have candy for all good children, and good cats, if there are any.” He laughed merrily. Nyanko-sensei batted away the candy that Santa Claus was dangling in front of him.

“Who are you?” Natsume demanded. “There’s no such person as Santa Claus, and if he were real, he wouldn’t be here in Japan.” He looked closely at Santa’s face, which was completely covered by his white beard. Completely covered, one bright eye barely visible. “You don’t look human.”

“He’s a youkai, of course.” Nyanko-sensei sniffed him. “A strong one.”

“Only at this time of year,” the youkai said.

“A Christmas youkai? How…” Natsume cradled Tanuma’s head in his lap and listened to the youkai’s story.

The youkai had always liked humans, but he was too weak to ever interact with them as he journeyed through cities and towns. He was a nameless, faceless shadow. That all changed when he met the Colonel. He’d seen statues of the bearded, white-haired man in almost every human city he’d visited, and concluded that he must be some local god, even though he never felt the slightest trace of the god’s presence. It was strange because at the end of the year, whenever the statue wore the red suit, everyone wanted to talk to him. They greeted him, they took pictures with him, and they cleaned away the snow that collected in his hat. Why would a god who was so beloved by his people, stay so far away? The white-haired statue didn’t deserve his followers, so one day, the youkai took the winter red suit for his own. The suit’s power was his! Adults smiled and children waved whenever he chanted the _Merry Christmas_ spell.

“I want to talk to humans and at Christmas I can. The children look for me, and that helps a lot,” the youkai said. “Humans are very strange creatures, don’t you think? In December, we can be friends, in June they call me a cosplay freak or worse. I would give out candy all year round if they wanted it.”

“Everything has its season. If we had candy all year, we’d be sick,” Natsume said.

“I wouldn’t be,” Nyanko-sensei said. “But the boy is right.”

“I’m sorry my aura hurt your friend,” the youkai said.

Nyanko-sensei snorted. “He’s probably enjoying it, but all good things come to an end.” With a mighty roar, he released his power, his true form emerged, sleek and beautiful. “If this doesn’t wake him up…” Madara gathered his energy and directed its full beam at the sleeping boy.

Tanuma woke up, the darkness had faded, and his head was resting in Natsume’s lap. Natsume, Madara, a man in a red suit… Santa Claus. He sat up quickly.

“You can still see him?” Natsume asked.

Tanuma nodded, his eyes wide.

“My sincerest apologies, young man. As a sign of your forgiveness, please take this.” The youkai handed Tanuma a slightly squashed box, tied with silver ribbons. He bowed to the group, and then pranced away in a flurry of red and green sparkles.

Tanuma opened the box. A flock of tiny Santas danced across snowy peaks of whipped cream and strawberries.

“Of course,” Natsume said.

Madara waved his tail suggestively, an action which was much harder to ignore when his tail was its proper size.

“If you want cake, you’d better…” Natsume waved his hand and Madara transformed back into a cat.

“See, Ponta. This is Christmas cake,” Tanuma said.

Natsume retied the silvery ribbons. “Nyanko-sensei, why don’t you take this cake back to the Fujiwara’s. I’m sure if you meow at them enough, they’ll give you a piece.” He turned to Tanuma. “Do you want to go on a date for Christmas?”

Tanuma watched the first snowflakes of the afternoon sparkle around Natsume’s head and tried to figure out if he was truly awake, or if this was the best dream of his life. Natsume took his hand, which was the only answer he needed.


End file.
